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The Beautiful Valley, The Beautiful Reunion and The Opet Festivals

The Beautiful Valley, The Beautiful Reunion and The Opet Festivals
 
The ancient Egyptians believed that they maintained order and stability of their world through careful sustenance of their gods. They believed that there had to be maintenance of cosmic order to prevent disharmony and chaos from destroying the world. Part of the means to achieve order and harmony was through daily care of the gods; this might be through daily ritualistic rites of service to a god in a temple or through a multitude of festivals, celebrated on special days throughout the year. Care of the gods through ritual and festival was of utmost importance and, according to Wilkinson this 'care' can be differentiated into three categories: 'daily ritual service of the gods to tend their basic needs; occasional but regular rituals which were part of the recurrent festivals of the temple character; non-regular festivals performed only on special occasions or under special circumstances.' I would like to examine three of the recurrent, annual festivals in this essay. Image: An agricultural scene from the tomb of Nakht

The ancient Egyptian temple was the cult centre of the local or state god and its religious rituals and practices were not public events. High priests, temple priests, court officials and sometimes the king would participate in and have knowledge of the temple rituals. Most temple rituals were conducted privately, cloaked in mystery and regarded as part of the secret knowledge of the priesthood. Therefore the annual calendar of Festivals often allowed pilgrims and the ordinary citizen to participate in worship of the 'god' when on festival days or special occasions images of the gods were placed on richly decorated barques and carried on the shoulders of priests to significant locations outside the temple. All festivals begin inside the temple. Cult images of the gods were considered divine and treated with great reverence. During the procession the image of the god would not be in plain view but would be enclosed or veiled on board the barque.

Evidence for festivals can be found on the walls of Egyptian temples. Festival calendars or lists of ritual activities were inscribed on walls and doorways of temples. An important source is the inscription of a list of festivals found in the temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. Lists of festivals and ritual activities often included information on the offerings to be made depending on the festival or ritual involved. 'A calendar is inscribed on the southern exterior wall of the temple of Ramesses II and this names over 60 festival days in the Egyptian civil year as well as the Lunar festivals.'

The Feast of the Beautiful Valley:

Many festivals were related to different agricultural seasons of the year such as the time of the inundation or flooding of the land, or of the sowing or harvesting seasons. The feast of the Beautiful Valley was such a feast; an ancient Egyptian 'harvest festival'. It was a time of great rejoicing, celebrated every year during the second month of Shomu, the harvest season, which marked the beginning of summer.

'This was the greatest festival of the Theban necropolis, when the image of Amun of Karnak on the east bank at Thebes was brought to the temples for the cult of individual kings on the west bank - a distinctive feature of this festival was the presentation of great quantities of flowers - this would have been a time for each family to feast with their dead, and the architecture and decoration of tomb-chapels at Thebes reflect such festive banquets.'

One can imagine the excitement and great rejoicing of people waiting along the banks of the river Nile on the occasion of an abundant harvest as the god Amun Ra, veiled from view, was carried on a portable sacred barque, carried on the shoulders of twenty-four priests.

In the depiction found within the enclosure of the Temple of Het-Hert at Deir el Medina, and dating from the 1st year of reign of Ramesses II, the priests wear their ceremonial robes; the bow and stern of the barque are richly decorated with the ram head of Amun.

We learn that 'this barque crossed the Nile on the Userhet, a 67-foot-long barge covered with gold and precious materials and built from imported Lebanese cedar. A flotilla of smaller boats followed the barge on the Nile.'

In Thebes this was one of two festivals in the New Kingdom which brought the god out of the temple in procession, (the other being the feast of Opet, a lunar festival in celebration of Osiris). The ordinary people participated in the festival by carrying their ancestor busts along with the procession, and then going to the tomb chapels.

The Feast of the Beautiful Reunion:

The word for 'beautiful' in the ancient Egyptian language, 'nfr' also related to wholeness and perfection. At the temple of the goddess of Het-Hert (Hathor) at Dendera, there are inscribed prayers, concerning 'The festival of the Beautiful Reunion' which also took place during Shomu, the season of Harvest and which celebrated the reunion of Het-Hert with Heru (Horus of Edfu) with a wedding procession from her worship centre in Dendera almost 200 km south to her consorts cult centre at Edfu. On the occasion of this festival people would ask the goddess for good health and a long life.

Elaborate preparations would take place before the procession could begin. Offerings of the first riches of the harvest would be made to mark the start of the festival. The procession took approximately 14 days to travel from Dendera to Edfu and would have involved ceremonial halts en route. Het-Hert's golden barque was named 'nb mrwt' meaning 'Mistress of Love' and must have provoked awe in the people lining the river bank as the procession stopped at locations including the temple of Asheru at Karnak, where Het-Hert would visit the goddess Mut. Het-Hert's barque would then stop at various ritually sacred siteds including a visit to the goddess Anuket at Per-Mer, (Per-Mer was Anuket's temple on Philae island).

Anuket was a goddess dating back to the old kingdom and was worshipped as 'nourisher of the fields' a further symbolic link to the theme of fertility, aspects of both the festival of the Beautiful Valley, (an abundant harvest) and the theme of renewal, rebirth and fertility in the 'Feast of the Beautiful Reunion.'

Anuket was linked to the Nile and its fertile waters; one of her many titles was 'nourisher of the fields'. She had her own festival which began when the Nile started its annual flood; it was then that the her own festival began. People threw coins, gold, jewelry, and precious gifts into the river in thanks for the life-giving water and for the benefits derived from a good harvest.

While Het-Hert's procession was nearing Edfu, Heru/Horus of Edfu, joined by Khonsu, set out in his own processionary barque to meet his consort. The site known as Wetjeset-Hor, just north of the Temple of Edfu was believed to be the original site of the primeval mound of creation 'where a reed was planted and Netjer settled to perform the act of creation.' It was significant that Het-Hert's journey includes this location where she is reunited with and is impregnated by her consort.

The festival culminates as the barques of both Het-Hert and Heru sail to at the Temple of Edfu; this event would be witnessed by awaiting crowds gathered for the festival. The sacred icons of both gods were placed together in the temple's sanctuary and fourteen days of rituals and celebrations began. Their reunion symbolised new life, fertility and regeneration. The meeting point at Edfu was the occasion for offerings of the first fruits of the harvest.

Although the rituals at each temple location were secret and sacred and did not involve the gathered pilgrims or ordinary Egyptian people, the crowds would enjoy refreshments provided by the temples outside the sacred grounds, during the festival.

Fertility, renewal and rebirth is a recurrent theme of many of the ancient Egyptian festivals and some of the same religious performances and rituals were practiced during different festivals. 'Some festivals had their own focused meanings, but renewal or rebirth was a predominant theme in a great number of them.'

At the culmination of the Festival of the Beautiful Reunion, Het-Hert would sail back to Dendera to await the birth of the child conceived at Edfu, Hor-sma tawy or Horus the Uniter.

The Feast of Opet:

The Festival of Opet became one of the most important, longest in duration and most celebrated festivals in New Kingdom times. At the culmination of this important festival the reigning king became identified with the Ka of Amun-Ra. The Ka involves a concept with no exact links to modern spirituality but is often referred to as an aspect of the soul.

'One will frequently see the term translated as "soul" or "spirit", the ka was much more than that. During very ancient times, the ka may have indicated male potency, and in all periods it is used as a term for the creative and sustaining power of life.'

The Opet festival began at the beginning of the Inundation or flooding season. Known from New Kingdom times, the feast became more elaborate from its first recorded depictions, developing into one of the longest in duration of the festivals of the annual calendar. The feast is said to have lasted from an initial time span of eleven days to anywhere from twenty four to twenty seven days. It is described as a 'boisterous occasion' with workers released from their work, due to the flooding of the fields.

The notion that on some festival occasions one might even see the king must have been thrilling indeed. The festivals played important roles beyond the consideration of thrilling the crowds, but how they must have done so! (Shortened article).